How Can The Solar Industry Accelerate Sales With E-Commerce Solutions

The global solar energy sales were worth $170.55 billion in 2020. And the market is expected to have a CAGR of 6.9% between 2021 and 2028.

But the COVID-19 pandemic hit the booming market hard. With a stagnant growth rate of 4.18% in 2020 and a negative demand shock, most players in the market are struggling to find a firm footing and make solar sales. 

Irrespective of whether you are a veteran selling solar components like solar panels, solar water heating systems, solar off-grid inverters, solar energy storage devices, solar electrical cables, or home solar kits or are just a budding installation service provider, the competition is cutthroat. The solar sales pressure is high. And the revenue streams for solar energy sales are dwindling.

How to increase solar sales then? Switch from traditional solar sales to eCommerce solutions.

Why?
Well, the global B2B eCommerce market was valued at $6.64 trillion in 2020 and is expected to grow exponentially in the future.

This clearly means that businesses are switching to B2B eCommerce. To keep up with the times and to be where your audience is, switching to b2b eCommerce solutions is a must-take step for businesses looking to sustain and grow their solar sales.

However, it is not just the need of the hour, but also a potential goldmine waiting to be explored. To make sure you don’t let the potential of your solar business down, we have mentioned 5 B2B eCommerce solutions, that can help you in accelerating solar sales.

B2B eCommerce Solutions For Solar Energy Sales

Read on to find out how to increase solar sales with B2B eCommerce solutions.

1. Reach Global Audiences

57% of online shoppers buy from retailers located overseas. Even if you are thousands of miles away from people, you can still make them your customers, all with the power of an eCommerce solution. With an online store and strong logistics management, you can sell your solar panels, and equipment, and even extend your services to people halfway across the world.

Not sure if businesses would actually buy solar power products from abroad? Well, 80% of solar products being used in India are being imported from China. The same goes for many other countries.

Also, if you think you can perform better in an international market, this is your cue to take a leap with b2b eCommerce solutions for accelerating solar sales. All while sitting in the comfort of your home.

When you have access to a larger audience base, it is obvious that your sales will pick up the pace.

2. Offer a B2C-like experience

74% of B2B buyers today carry out detailed searches before making a business purchase, much like B2C customers. And they make approximately 12 searches before buying from a seller online.

So if you think that business buyers don’t care as much about user experience while buying online, you might be mistaken. They are definitely comparing the experience that you offer with what your competitors offer.

But fret not. With reliable B2B eCommerce solutions, you can provide a customized, B2C-like experience to your B2B clients too.

How?
With a smooth UI/UX platform that helps your users find the products/services, they need with ease.

Some other ways to please your audience with an impeccable experience:

• Who doesn’t love a good deal or discount? For solar product manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers, online coupons and discount offers are a great way to enhance buyer intent. People anyway need added incentives to switch to solar. Discount codes that can be quickly applied at checkout are a great way to do that.
• Solar products are seldom sold alone. To switch to solar, businesses need advisors, and consultants, and even installation providers to set up solar power systems at their commercial establishments. You can build a custom eCommerce solution where you can also advertise your installation and consultation services. When people can shop from you and get allied services right there, your solar energy sales are likely to improve. 

3. Go Mobile With eCommerce

50% of B2B queries are posted from smartphones today. Also, 40% of revenue for leading B2B companies comes from mobile leads.

When you have just a brick-and-mortar store for selling your solar panels or other equipment, you have restricted reach to people. But with a mobile eCommerce portal, you can live in the pockets of your B2B customers and their hearts too.

You can choose to get a custom eCommerce solution that includes a mobile-optimized website that can be used on any browser. Or else you can get an eCommerce mobile app developed to boost your solar eCommerce avenues.

4. Enable Price Comparisons

When people shop, it is obvious that they make price comparisons. Visiting every solar energy component seller physically and asking for quotes is a time-consuming task. But with a B2B eCommerce portal, you can display transparent pricing and get into the good books of your clients.

Don’t want to publically display the pricing on the web (for competitive reasons)?

In that case, you can ask interested B2B buyers to log in with their business email accounts to get pricing details. This not only keeps your prospective buyers happy as they get the quotes easily but also helps you generate qualified leads as the login email ID can be used for reaching out to prospects with personalized offers.

Of course, such functionality can be hard to implement in most eCommerce solutions. However, with a custom eCommerce solution, you can get this feature for your solar eCommerce website. 

5. Showcase A Wider Catalog With Ease

No matter how wide or elaborate your showcase is, displaying each and every product you offer is impossible. Even if you are offering just a single product, like say, solar panels, it gets difficult to display all the size variants in the same storefront.

But with b2b eCommerce solutions like websites and mobile apps, you get the power to showcase a wider product catalog with ease. You can easily display the different products and their variants that you offer online.

A wide catalog to choose from lets B2B buyers know that you can meet their diverse set of needs with your extensive range of offerings.

Gearing Up To Boost Solar sales

While B2B eCommerce solutions can certainly help in accelerating solar sales, there is also a concerning statistic.

Only 2.86% of eCommerce website visits convert into a purchase. And most eCommerce stores struggle to even make sales of more than $1000 in a year.

Why?
Because of poorly developed and non-optimized eCommerce solutions.

However, if you choose to get a custom eCommerce solution developed for your solar business with the SynergyTop team, you won’t face any such concerns.

We have developed several b2b eCommerce solutions for solar sector businesses and have the relevant industry expertise to develop custom eCommerce solution for you that meets your needs and industry standards.

For example, when we integrated Shopify with Enact for Rubicon, one of our solar sector clients, they could serve their end-users (solar system installers) better, while accelerating solar sales. We can replicate such solar eCommerce success for your business too.

About SynergyTop

SynergyTop is a San Diego-based digital commerce company with almost a decade of experience in developing E-Commerce and web/mobile solutions for solar companies. We have worked with Shopify, Shopify Plus, Magento, WooCommerce, commercetools, and many other E-commerce technologies and can design bespoke solutions for your business.

Give us a call at 619-349-4911 or email us at contact@synergytop.com to get the conversation about your solar eCommerce solution started.